I spent the afternoon driving around hanging posters up for the Promises For Pets Portraits Charity Photography Event that I’m shooting in two weeks.  And imagine my absolutely delight when I went into Pet Parlor and was greeted by these two beautiful cats that are brothers.  They have to run of this cute little shop.  I had to go back out to the Jeep and get my Camera and spend a couple of minutes with these gorgeous boys.

A big thanks to them as well as: Critter Corner & Alyce Marcotuli DVM for letting me hang posters.

Is it time yet?  Polo time?  What are friday nights without Polo in Western PA?

I’m going through withdrawals.  So I’ve given myself a little fix.  I have 4 years of galleries to rebuild on the website.  Galleries of polo.  Oodles and oodles of polo photography.  From Darlington, PA, East Palestine, OH and Saratoga, NY.  That’s the breaks of switching from one web host to another.  But it’s been fun revisiting and I’ll be posting my favorites here on the blog as we lead up to the first matches of the season.

And while I’m busy doing that…..it’s time for you to start thinking about tailgating, shake out those picnic blankets, dust of the coolers and dream of polo ponies flying down the field.

The Manifesto of Encouragement

right now:

There are Tibetan Buddhist monks in a temple in the Himalayas endlessly reciting mantras for the cessation of your suffering and for the flourishing of your happiness.

Someone you haven’t met yet is already dreaming of adoring you.

Someone is writing a book that you will read in the next two years that will change how you look at life.

Nuns in the Alps are in endless vigil, praying for the Holy Spirit to alight the hearts of all of God’s children.

A farmer is looking at his organic crops and whispering, “nourish them.”

Someone wants to kiss you, to hold you, to make tea for you. Someone is willing to lend you money, wants to know what your favourite food is, and treat you to a movie. Someone in your orbit has something immensely valuable to give you — for free.

Something is being invented this year that will change how your generation lives, communicates, heals and passes on.

The next great song is being rehearsed.

Thousands of people are in yoga classes right now intentionally sending light out from their heart chakras and wrapping it around the earth.

Millions of children are assuming that everything is amazing and will always be that way.

Someone is in profound pain, and a few months from now, they’ll be thriving like never before. They just can’t see it from where they’re at.

Someone who is craving to be partnered, to be acknowledged, to ARRIVE, will get precisely what they want — and even more. And because that gift will be so fantastical in it’s reach and sweetness, it will quite magically alter their memory of angsty longing and render it all “So worth the wait.“

Someone has recently cracked open their joyous, genuine nature because they did the hard work of hauling years of oppression off of their psyche — this luminous juju is floating in the ether, and is accessible to you.

Someone just this second wished for world peace, in earnest.

Someone is fighting the fight so that you don’t have to.

Some civil servant is making sure that you get your mail, and your garbage is picked up, that the trains are running on time, and that you are generally safe.  Someone is dedicating their days to protecting your civil liberties and clean drinking water.

Someone is regaining their sanity. Someone is coming back from the dead. Someone is genuinely forgiving the seemingly unforgivable. Someone is curing the incurable.

You. Me. Some. One. Now.

. . . . . . .

The Manifesto of Encouragement was written by Danielle LaPorte.  I stumbled upon her website yesterday after it was linked by a another member of the blogosphere.  Which lead to buying the book that she just released called, The Fire Starter Sessions.  I’m devouring it.  And I think you should too.  Really, I don’t very often say run out and buy something.  And I am…saying it, that is.  Or reserve a copy at the library.  At the very least bookmark the above Manifesto and when you need a little reassurance, a dose of encouragement it will be there for you.

I did a special Mini-Session for Red a couple of weeks ago.  Red was adopted from the Lake Erie Labrador Retriever Rescue in 2010.  I needed to do this session so that I had images to use for an upcoming super fun charity project that I’ll be announcing next week for Promises For Pets!  If you have a FurKid….your not going to want to miss this event where 100% of the proceeds will be going to a wonderful local animal rescue organization.  Really….I mean it….you’ll get a beautiful image like these as a gift from me and your entire donation will go to helping animals in need.  And Promises For Pets just announced that they received approval to start building a new shelter here in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania.  Can we all give a woot woot or should I say woof woof for all the hard work that Promises For Pets has had to do to get this passed though New Castle City Council and the Court system!

Tune in next week to get all the details.  So for now, lets talk about the possibility of getting Red some sort of position with the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Clearly he has a major affinity for baseball.  Do they still use dogs to retrieve the balls out of the river when they go over the wall?  We used to have a sweet little Jack Russell who was over her head NUTS over Tennis Balls.  The current JRT’s don’t play ball…they do like to destroy anything that squeaks.  And of course digging holes is a must for them.  My sweet little dirt dogs are at their absolute happiest when filthy and working underground.

So what about your furry friend (either currently or one that has passed).  What activity brings out the inner pup?